Black bile burned the back of his throat. Oh, but what he had been forced to do to carry out Lilith’s desires and to save Roma—and the world—from the malevolent power of Akvan’s Obelisk…executing Eustacia, accepting her willing sacrifice by swinging the sword himself in the presence of Nedas. It had be
en the only way to prove his loyalty to the Tutela, the only way to get close enough to destroy the obelisk.
And Victoria. She’d seen it happen. She’d never forgive him.
Yes, he’d done the right thing, the only thing…but it had been repugnant. Heartbreaking.
And that was why he’d removed his vis bulla, walked away from Victoria and the rest of the Venators…and why he’d been reckless enough to come here.
A hero he’d been, true, but a repulsive one at that.
“Ah, Maximilian.” Lilith was speaking again, touching him again. Her fingers wove into the hair that brushed his shoulders, sending little frissons of unease into his scalp. “I do like your hair long like this. It makes you look so much more…savage. You would be a magnificent vampire.”
He closed his eyes. Waiting. Ignoring the leap in his veins, the obstinate awareness of her pull, the way his fingers trembled. The unbearable smell of roses from the hideous creature in front of him. The way his body responded to hers, and the knowledge that it wasn’t only because of the bites.
“I’ll never drink your blood.”
Lilith sighed against him, her breath not putrid, as one might expect from an undead, but tinged with the same floral scent that clung to the rest of her. But then, of course, she hadn’t just been feeding. “And that, my pet, is my greatest disappointment of the century. All right, Maximilian. I will allow you to be released from my thrall. Much as it will annoy me to do so.”
She released him and he opened his eyes. Wary.
Lilith stepped away, suddenly breezy in her demeanor. “I will release you. There is a salve, a balm you can apply to the bites…my specific Marking bites,” she added, her blue-red eyes narrowing. “It will heal them permanently. We will no longer be bound.”
“And?”
Her smile came all the way to her eyes, drawing them tight at the corners and tightening the tops of her cheeks. But it barely touched her lips. “And…with the dissolution of my markings on you will also be the destruction of your Venatorial powers. The vis bulla will be useless to you. You will no longer sense those of my race.”
But he’d chosen to be a Venator. He could choose it again. He’d willingly go through the life-or-death test to regain any powers he lost.
As if reading his mind—perhaps it was as simple as her sensing the change in him—Lilith continued: “But, of course, since you are not of Gardella blood, my bites that you so disdain have tainted you and your blood. As such, you will not be able to pass the test to regain your lost powers. They would be gone from you forever. But never fear—along with the loss of your strength, you will be relieved of any memory of our times together and of your time as a Venator. It will all go away.”
“I will recall nothing of the Venators, of the vampires?”
“Nothing. Your ignorance will be your bliss.”
He could forget what had happened. Live a normal life.
“You’ve done your duty, Maximilian. Beyond your duty. You’ve done everything that’s been asked of you, and more. I would miss you, of course….”
Then he understood. “And, of course, I would be ripe for your plucking.”
“Oh, no, Maximilian. You would be just like any other mortal man. No longer a challenge. No longer exciting, a mixture of pleasure” —she stroked a hand over his cheek— “and pain” —and slipped her hand down under his shirt to brush against his vis bulla. And then she jerked away with the shock, and a breathless laugh. “I would have no further interest in you.”
His heart thumped quietly. “Why?”
Lilith placed both hands on his chest. “I would no longer have to contend with my greatest threat: you as a Venator.”
He took her wrists—the first time he’d ever touched her of his own volition—and forced them away.
“So what shall it be, Maximilian? A free, ignorant life…or the vis bulla and me?”
* * *